Of course I said I would go with my mother, and of course they
all cried out at our foolhardiness, but even then not a man would
go along with us. All they would do was to give me a loaded pistol
lest we were attacked, and to promise to have horses ready
saddled in case we were pursued on our return, while one lad was
to ride forward to the doctor’s in search of armed assistance.

My heart was beating finely when we two set forth in the cold
night upon this dangerous venture. A full moon was beginning to
rise and peered redly through the upper edges of the fog, and this
increased our haste, for it was plain, before we came forth again,
that all would be as bright as day, and our departure exposed to
the eyes of any watchers. We slipped along the hedges, noiseless
and swift, nor did we see or hear anything to increase our terrors,
till, to our relief, the door of the Admiral Benbow had closed
behind us.

I slipped the bolt at once, and we stood and panted for a
moment in the dark, alone in the house with the dead captain’s
body. Then my mother got a candle in the bar, and holding each
other’s hands, we advanced into the parlour. He lay as we had left
him, on his back, with his eyes open and one arm stretched out.

“Draw down the blind, Jim,” whispered my mother; “they
might come and watch outside. And now,” said she when I had
done so, “we have to get the key off that; and who’s to touch it, I
should like to know!” and she gave a kind of sob as she said the
words.

I went down on my knees at once. On the floor close to his hand
there was a little round of paper, blackened on the one side. I
could not doubt that this was the black spot; and taking it up, I